North Face Sentinel

I add this "dog" of a route ONLY to correct an error I must have made when discussing with David Jones for his guidebook.

This is route 490 in the David Jones guidebook (2004).  In discussions with him for the guidebook about a route we (Doug Kerr, Earlyn Deans and I ) did in 1967, I did not feel that we did this route. I thought we did more of a couloir than a "face" BUT upon reflecting on the photo (taken in 1967) of the North Face I now realize there is no couloir left of the No. Face route.

The line David drew our route that he called "North Gully" (Rt # 493) on the photo on page 358 is incorrect; that line is simply one line of ascent to Friendship Col. (The usual line taken is a bit left, but its clear that the line drawn ends on Friendship Col.) 

As David states: " Route 490 is NOT recommended due to lose rock. The route, although listed as FA in 1966 in Jones guidebook, was not listed in the edition of the Putnam guidebook available to us in 1967.

Doug Kerr, while leading, pulled off a rock about the size of a car tire, it rolled over the calf of his leg, managed to miss both Earlyn and myself, then continued down the snow gully in bounding leaps. Somehow he continued up on the climb; we summited and descended via Friendship Col.  This was on the first day of a 2 week trip, and the resulting hematoma on Doug's leg would put him out of commission for the next 10 days. It was so bad, that along about day 7 we were considering hiking out to get a helicopter to take him out. He started improving that day. 

See Photo

Just don't go there, but if you do rope and long slings.